A report that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had named 466 problematic apps drew wide attention. A plug-in called DowginCW, hidden in popular games, was said to have quietly controlled at least hundreds of thousands of phones in China.
As mobile internet and smartphones spread, payment tools such as WeChat Pay and Alipay became the default way to pay, and protecting the phone became more important.
An iiMedia report for 2016–2017 found that 73.3% of users worried about payment security and 64.8% about privacy leaks, followed by nuisance calls, public Wi-Fi and spam messages. Overall awareness of mobile security remained low.
The problem has stayed serious as phones replace PCs as the main target for malware. Security tools go deeper, but attackers keep changing tactics.
For vendors, the consumer security market is crowded. Growth is more likely in the enterprise, where device management, data protection and compliance create room for a more complete security service.
